Drunken holiday f light thug jailed for threats to pilot and passengers
A DRUNKEN Scot who threatened to stab a pilot and kill everyone on board a plane has been jailed for eight months.
Martin Johnson, 56, bought two bottles of duty-free white wine at Bristol Airport and downed one before boarding the easyJet flight to Malaga.
Passengers – including children – saw him swigging from the second bottle of wine, which was hidden in a bag under his seat, before disappearing to the toilets
Janine Wood, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court that cabin crew found an empty wine bottle in the toilet, where someone had also urinated all over the cubicle.
They alerted the pilot and when they announced over a tannoy that the flight was returning to Bristol, Johnson, originally from Glasgow, became abusive.
He told cabin crew: ‘If the pilot turns us around I am going to stab him and I am going to hit him.’
Johnson then added: ‘I’m going to stab an air hostess and kill everybody on the plane.’ Mrs Wood said: ‘Paula James had the misfortune to be sat next to him on the plane. She saw him drinking from the bottle.
‘Miss James says, “I felt petrified but I kept calm because there was a row of children sat behind us with their teachers”.’
Johnson’s drunken threats disrupted all 153 passengers on board – many of whose holidays were delayed until the following day – and cost easyJet tens of thousands of pounds. The flight was turned around over Guernsey 25 minutes after take-off and Johnson was arrested on arrival back in Bristol.
He told police he had drunk one bottle of wine in the departure lounge but denied being drunk or making threats.
Johnson, who lives in Harlow, Essex, had previously pleaded not guilty to being drunk on an aircraft but after skipping bail was convicted by magistrates in his absence.
He was later arrested in Glasgow
‘Idiotic and irresponsible’
and held in custody before being sentenced at Bristol Crown Court.
Johnson, who was not represented, told the court that while sat in his seat on the plane he lied to cabin crew about having alcohol and instead of surrendering it he decided to pour it down the toilet.
When he realised the flight was being turned back and that he would be arrested, he said he only accused airline staff of being ‘out of order’ and was not abusive.
Johnson added: ‘If I had given them the alcohol I would not have been arrested but I decided to empty it down the toilet. I am sorry about that. I have been out of trouble for a long time and I wish there was some alternative to prison.’
The court heard that easyJet has since banned him from flying with the airline ever again.
Jailing him for eight months, Judge Longman said Johnson’s behaviour would have disrupted holidays, business meetings and flight schedules, as well as causing ‘fear and alarm’ for passengers.
She told him: ‘The vast majority of aircraft passengers are sensible and law abiding and when people act irresponsibly and idiotically like you did, sentences of imprisonment will always be required.’
The sentence comes weeks after aviation minister Lord Ahmad pledged to examine the way alcohol is sold at airports, amid a spate of incidents on planes involving drunken passengers.
Budget airline Jet2 last week announced it would be banning alcohol sales on flights before 8am.
EasyJet welcomed the decision to jail Johnson. A spokesman said: ‘Whilst they are rare, easyJet takes all incidents of disruptive behaviour very seriously. We have a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our employees.
‘We do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour and always push for prosecution.’